Three Teens, Young Boy Among Va. Shooter's Victims

Christopher Speight charged; house littered with explosives
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 21, 2010 5:39 AM CST
Three Teens, Young Boy Among Va. Shooter's Victims
The front door of the home where the shootings took place remains open as investigators continue their work in Appomattox, Va., yesterday.   (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Three teenagers and a 4-year-old boy were among the eight victims of a Virginia gunman, according to authorities in Appomattox say. Security guard Christopher Speight has been charged with first-degree murder in the shootings, which claimed the lives of his sister-in-law, her teen daughter, her husband, and the couple's young son, along with another couple and two teenagers.

Speight lived at the house where the killings took place, which police found rigged with explosives. No clear motive has emerged for the shootings but friends say Speight feared he was going to be forced out of the home by his sister and her husband. The devout Jehovah's Witness had changed in recent months, becoming increasingly detached and anxious, friends and colleagues tell the Washington Post.
(More Christopher Speight stories.)

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